Pleb row minister Andrew Mitchell was left clinging to his job tonight after a humiliating showdown with the police ended with demands for his resignation.

The Tory chief whip met rank and file officers from the Police Federation in his constituency in a bid to finally “draw a line under” his Downing Street outburst.

But furious officers emerged from the 45-minute meeting calling for David Cameron to sack him.

Ken Mackaill, chairman of West Mercia Police Federation, said Mr Mitchell had point-blank refused to say what he shouted at police officers - but had rejected accusations that he called them “f***ing plebs”.

Mr Mackaill said: “Whilst he has repeated in his words ‘profound apology with feeling’ for what he did say, he has also repeated his denial of using many of the words reported in the officers notes recorded at the time.

“His explanation for that is that he did not ‘want to get into a firefight with the police’ or impugn the integrity of the police officers.

“Unfortunately we’re left in a position where this continued denial of facts recorded in police records does exactly that.

“We are no further forward than we were an hour ago. I think Mr Mitchell now has no option but to resign.

“He is continuing to refuse to elaborate on what happened and I think his position is untenable.”

Mr Mackaill said the row was about the “honesty and accuracy of police records”.

He said if police were not trusted by the Prime Minister and the Chief Whip then courts would refuse to trust them as well.

He said: “This is a cabinet minister challenging the accuracy of police records.

“I think Andrew Mitchell’s position is untenable and if he won’t resign then I don’t think Mr Cameron has an option. He has to sack him.”

Mr Mitchell has admitted losing his temper at two officers after they refused to open the main gates to Downing Street for him.

He said: “It was really wrong to be rude to a police officer literally just standing there in Downing Street doing his job.

“I think what he did was wrong, really wrong. He’s got to explain himself to the Police Federation.”

A poll today showed 50% of public think the row shows that Tory MPs see themselves as better than ordinary people.

The survey revealed that 60% of the public believe the outburst “showed his true feelings” and 50% think his behaviour and attitudes reflect those of other Conservative MPs.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper said the saga had “gone on long enough” and he now needed to be sacked.

She said: “Neither the Prime Minister nor the chief whip have proved capable of coming clean swiftly and putting this right.

“And it is now clear no-one even in the Conservative Party has confidence in Andrew Mitchell either.

“The failure by David Cameron and Andrew Mitchell to take this incident seriously enough and to sort it out straight away means Andrew Mitchell will clearly not be able to instil respect in Parliament or beyond as chief whip, and this will just drag on and on.

“David Cameron needs to put an end to this now and remove Andrew Mitchell from his position as chief whip.”

Mr Mitchell left his constituency office in Sutton Coldfield half an hour after the meeting without saying anything.